Welcome!

Wine Peeps is an independent wine blog dedicated to helping you get the most bang for your buck in wine. We do this through blind tastings of wine from around the world and calculations of Quality-to-Price Ratios (QPRs). Because we are located in Seattle, Washington, we have a special interest in Washington State wines.

In the course of our wine journey, we also enjoy numerous wine-related activities such as traveling throughout wine country, visiting vineyards, reading wine books, and trying wine gadgets, all of which we share with our readers.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the government agency that oversees all things wine, has established the 4,145-acre Snipes Mountain AVA as Washington Stateâ€™s newest American Viticultural Area (AVA); it becomes official this Friday, February 20. Snipes Mountain is located in Yakima County between Granger and Sunnyside. Some of the vineyards and wineries located within Snipes Mountain include: Eaton Hill Winery (Granger), Steppe Cellars (Sunnyside), Tefft Cellars (Outlook), and Upland Estates Winery and Upland Vineyards (Outlook).

Snipes Mountain is Washingtonâ€™s 10th AVA. It joins Rattlesnake Hills and Red Mountain to be the third AVA within the larger Yakima Valley AVA. It is Washingtonâ€™s second-smallest AVA, just a touch larger than Red Mountain. (Map from Washington Wine Commission)

While Snipes Mountain is the newest AVA in the state, it is actually one of the stateâ€™s oldest growing areas. Grapes were first planted in Snipes Mountain by William B. Bridgman in 1917.

Lynnell,
I’m not sure if there are more wineries than the four I mentioned in this post that are actually located within the Snipes Mountain AVA, but over 25 different wineries use grapes grown in Snipes Mountain in their wines. Approximately 665 acres of vineyards are already planted there.